Dozens of media from across the country and the United States attended, including Roger’s longtime friend Harry Neale of Hockey Night In Canada, the general manager of the Vancouver Canucks when Neilson coached them.

When Toronto hired Eakins as an asst. coach of its AHL team, Paul Hunter of the Toronto Star reported:

For Dallas Eakins, a lifetime of making the most out of very little continues to pay off.

Eakins, a one-time Maple Leaf, and Toronto native Joe Paterson were formally announced yesterday as the two assistant coaches on the AHL Toronto Marlies under head coach Paul Maurice. In many ways, Eakins’ journeyman 15-year playing career, spent on 18 teams in three different leagues, was an apprenticeship for this opportunity with the Leafs’ farm team.

“Through my playing career, my skills were very limited so I had to be very attentive to every detail in the game to be successful. I was a real student of the game to mask skills that weren’t God-given,” he said yesterday.

“I played 120 games in the NHL but there must have been another 200 where I was in the stands or the seventh defenceman. I did a lot of observing and learning the game.”

In 2006, he was quoted in a National Post story on the the habit of AHL teams to have three games in three nights on weekends.

“It’s the old saying, it is what it is,” said Eakins. “If you want to use the excuse that you’re tired for every third game in three nights, maybe you shouldn’t dress. We know that they’re tired, but we still expect 100% effort every night.

“That being said, our road trips are way harder than the NHL level. It’s not even comparable. If you can survive here, you’ll just find the travel at the next level that much easier.”

In 2006, The Star’s Ken Campbell wrote a piece about Eakins after he’d been made an asst. coach to Paul Maurice on the Leafs.

Eakins said he recently got an NHL pension statement that indicated he was on NHL rosters for more than 330 NHL games.

Only one problem. He actually played in just 120 of them.

“I was thinking, ‘Man, I was in the press box for 200 games,’” Eakins said. “But the great thing is, it has paid off. On those nights, I wasn’t dickin’ around in the wives’ room eating potato chips. I was taking notice of what was going on.”

Unlike most coaches who don’t exactly enjoy the idea of breaking down video and going through it with players, Eakins has embraced the role. That, in part, comes from a close friendship with the late Roger Neilson, whose idea of a good time was sitting around with buddies watching hockey and picking out minute details.

Unlike former coach Pat Quinn, Maurice will put a huge emphasis on video and there’s a good chance that young Leaf players such as Kyle Wellwood, Carlo Colaiacovo, Staffan Kronwall and Alexander Steen are going to get to know Eakins quite well.

Players will also gain an appreciation from Eakins of what it takes to be successful in hockey. “When I was playing, I was always trying to survive,” Eakins said.

“I was not a skill player. I had to know the technical part of the game, where to be on the ice to basically mask my lack of speed and hands.”

Eakins was an asst. coach with the Marlies in 2005-06, assistant with the Leafs in 2006-08, and then head coach of the Marlies from 2009 to 2013. In his final two years, the team had a winning record, losing in the 2012 Calder Cup finals.

On Aug. 4, 2009, the Star’s Paul Hunter wrote about the hiring of Eakins, then 42, as head coach of the Marlies, saying, “If the Maple Leafs, while searching for a new coach for the Toronto Marlies, desired an empathetic sort, they’d have had a tough time doing better than Dallas Eakins. There are few men who better understand the plight of the NHL wannabe, having toiled for 10 different minor-league teams during his playing career.

At that time, Eakins gave credit to former Leafs coach Paul Maurice and to Roger Neilson, just as he did at his most recent press conference when he got the Oilers job.

“He sped up my learning curve,” Eakins said of Maurice, in an interview with the Star’s Mark Zwolinski. “(Neilson) was the biggest influence in my life. He was like a father to me – we didn’t quite see eye-to-eye on some things but the one thing I saw in him was work ethic.”

Still no word on what those differences were with Neilson, though Eakins mentioned them again when he was hired by the Oilers.

In a 2010 story, Hunter interviewed Brian Burke, who said that Eakins taught his players the exact same systems play as Ron Wilson did on the Leafs. Said Burke to Hunter: “I place great stress on coaching. We have an integrated system as far as our farm team goes. Our farm team plays the exact mirror-image system that our big club plays, which is amazingly not true everywhere. So when a kid comes up and plays for the Leafs, the only thing different is the building. He knows the forecheck, he knows the PK, he knows all that stuff. I believe in strength in coaching at the minor-league level. I think Dallas Eakins is just a top young coach.”

In December, 2010, the Canadian Press gave us some insight into how Eakins would react to a losing streak, at least at that point with that particular Marlies team.

The Marlies had lost five of six games, but Eakins said: “They know I’m behind them. When things are going well, it’s better to be harder on them. When things aren’t going great, that’s when you’re really encouraging. I’m going to stick with that because I think it works.”

In March 2011, Zwolinski of the Star wrote a piece about how Eakins was able to win with nothing, to keep winning even after seven starters were called up to the NHL.

Players refer to Eakins as a player’s coach, Zwolinski wrote. “They say he’s fair – and firm when he has to be – but never holds himself up as an example in his arguments. He’s a former grinder with eight NHL teams, one of the fittest people in the hockey world, and has been tagged by some as a can’t-miss NHL coach. … Eakins doesn’t discriminate and says every player knows ‘there’s a line they don’t cross with me.’ He searches for inspiration every day to help build his own character and the collective character of the hockey team, even drawing on inspirational clips from YouTube.

The Fitness Fanatic

“And if the videos don’t do it, the players can’t help but pay attention to Eakins on a stationary bike. An avid cyclist, Eakins participated in the Leadville100 mountain bike race in Colorado last summer, an annual 100-mile event at 10,000-foot altitude. It included a 3,000-foot climb from miles 40 to 50, and more than 14,000 feet of elevation change in total.

“While Eakins continually hears that he’s a player’s coach, it doesn’t matter much to him. ‘I’ve heard that about myself but really for me, I don’t care … and no coach should care if the players like them,’ Eakins says.”

In September 2011, the Star’s Dave Feschuk also wrote a piece focusing on Eakins’ great fitness.

“If Eakins is demanding his team come into camp in top shape, the better to weather the wear and tear of an exhausting season, he’s only demanding the same of himself. ‘I think my players kind of like it, and they kind of respect it,’ Eakins says. ‘They walk in there in the mornings and I’m usually just getting off the bike. Or, after practice, they see me going to get on it. … If I’m going to be a guy who’s hammering on my players about what they eat and what they drink and how they train, for me, I can’t be overweight and unfit and go in there telling them that. I just can’t do it. So, listen, if I’m going to talk the talk, I’d better be ready to walk the walk. I’m doing my best, at my age, to be the best I can with that.’”

In March, 2012, after Eakins missed out on the big job with the Leafs, the Star was on it again, this time with Bob Mitchell quoting many of Eakins players about the coach.

“He’s the glue that keeps the puzzle together,” said top prospect Nazem Kadri of Eakins. “He’s the quarterback, so to speak, that gives us all the faith and confidence that we need to be successful.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if some team steals him for next season,” said centre Joe Colborne, 22. “There’s no doubt in my mind he’ll be a very successful NHL coach.

“What it comes down to is that he actually cares about his players. You want to go through a brick wall for him, and win for him. There’s huge respect for him in this dressing room. From the first line to the fourth line, he commands respect. Nobody wants to let him down. He’s such a great teacher.”

“From day one when I came here, he’s been a breath of fresh air for me. Since coming here, my defensive play has skyrocketed. I’m much more confident in my own zone. I feel now, more than ever in my career, that I can step in as a third-line player and contribute. If that’s the role I need to play to crack the big team, I know I can do it.”

In June 2012, Eakins got a new three year deal with the Marlies, Zwolinski reported.

Eakins spelled out more of his philosophy on coaching.

“I’m not concerned if the players like me. The biggest thing for me is that they respect me,” Eakins said.

The Kadri/Don Cherry Blow Out

The Star covered in detail an incident last fall where Don Cherry blasted Eakins for his handling of Nazem Kadri. Kevin McGran reported this one. Eakins pushed Kadri to improve his eating habits.

The National Post quoted Eakins saying: “You make your choice. You can either go sit on the couch, put your feet up and have a bag of potato chips or you can go on the couch and put your feet up and grab some carrots and some apples.

“It takes time. You’ll see guys, they’re young, they’re still kind of in the junk-food mode and they’ll eat wherever they can. And then there’s other guys as they mature they understand the importance of their nutrition … that will come.”

This prompted Cherry to tweet out that the Leafs were out to “destroy” Kadri. “I have never in my life seen a kid treated like Nazem Kadri by the Leafs,” Cherry tweeted.

To which Eakins told the Star: “Don is headstrong and I am 100 per cent sure he believes everything he told that person to type on Twitter. … I’m not mad at Don, I’m not rattled at Don. I just don’t agree with what he said. I’ve never seen him at a game, or a practice. I’ve never seen him come down and say hi to our players, or me.

Eakins had deemed it “unacceptable” that Kadri’s body-fat level was among the worst on the team. “Two years ago, I said we need this young man to have a better commitment to not turning over pucks, recognizing danger. And he got way better at that,” said Eakins. “Last year, I said we need this guy to make a bigger commitment to the D-zone coverage. And he did. He got better.

“This year, I said he needs a better commitment to the way he eats, and people went crazy.”

Eakins said he’d never sugar-coat an answer, that AHL players especially need to hear the truth.

“I could put down 35 things I think are important to being an NHL player: skating, power, eating habits. They’re all equal to me. Why would I ever, at the AHL level, look away on one thing?” said Eakins.

In February 2013, Eakns ripped his team after it had lost five of six.

“I can go right through the team right now,” Eakins said. “Especially our group of forwards. I don’t have a lot of love for them right now.”

“I didn’t like our game right from the drop of the puck. We wanted to play desperate, we didn’t do that. We wanted to play physical, we didn’t do that. We wanted to have a net-front presence, we didn’t do that. And somehow we were able to hang around in the game and make it interesting.

The 2013 playoffs…

On April 27, 2013, the Star’s Bob Mitchell wrote about the playoff hopes of the Marlies this year.

“A rookie-laden Toronto Marlies open the AHL playoffs this weekend against the Rochester Americans, hoping for another crack at the Calder Cup title that eluded them last season,” wrote Mitchell. “The team isn’t as offensively-talented as the group that started the season. The Maple Leafs began calling up players right after the NHL lockout ended and promoted Jake Gardiner, Joe Colborne and captain Ryan Hamilton about a month ago. Marlies coach Dallas Eakins‘ charges will be relying on grit, hard work and determination.

“Eakins has used 45 different players this season. Five different goalies have stopped pucks… As many as 14 rookies could be in the Marlies lineup for Game 1.”

Said Eakins: “We have a group of guys who aren’t afraid of playing the hard way and the nasty way and on a lot of nights it hurts. It’s a funny thing though. I think they like the pain. They enjoy going out and playing that dirty game every night.”

Moving on to NHL

On May 23, Mitchell reported that Eakins was making his case for another NHL job.

“To be honest, I haven’t thought about it yet,” Eakins said to Mitchell moments after the Marlies were eliminated on Tuesday night by the Grand Rapids Griffins when they blew a two-goal lead by giving up three goals in the final 10 minutes at the Ricoh Coliseum. “I’ve got contract time left here. … We’ll see what happens with that stuff.”

On June 4, Dave Feschuk wrote that Eakins needed to choose wisely. “Dallas Eakins, by all accounts, is in a remarkable position this spring, on the radar for a handful of NHL coaching jobs that may or may not be offered to him. Vancouver has expressed interest in Eakins, who has spent the past four seasons as a skilful nurturer of talent and winner of games as coach of the Leafs’ AHL affiliate. Ditto the New York Rangers and the aptly named Dallas Stars. Edmonton is also in the mix, although their current head coach, Ralph Krueger, doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, which means Eakins, if it came to that, would be signing on as Krueger’s second-in-command.”

Part 1

This Week's Flyers

Comments

Postmedia is pleased to bring you a new commenting experience. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.